hmm, very interesting. i wouldn't want to be there alone. I live down the street from there and BELIEVE ME. you think this picture is spooky, try checking it out in person...x
Expect to find homeless folk finding shelter there. There are still a lot of mentally ill and/or addicted who don't want to enter the current system. The buildings are very accessable and it's cold outside. Brentwood and Central Islip have many homeless folk. So yes, there may be someone following you - they probably want a dollar.
I worked in the Long Beach Adult homes in the early 80's where patients were dumped in the exodus that occured (I think) after certain psychotropic drugs were introduced to keep these folk calm. I love them all and was well-loved. I heard their tales of diabetic comas and saw lobotomy scars. That was at the Brighton Home in Long Beach on Lincoln Blvd. and the Boardwalk - it is about to come down, but there may be a few of those folk still there - I've not visited for a while. At that time I only knew of Pilgrim as the place my friends had come from, now I live out here iright near there and still work with younger folk who've come through there or are housed there. I MUST SAY that I think the fascination with this place DOES have to do with what was done to people with mental illness, but sadly, the fascination is also with to those to whom it was done. This is all about stigma that must be broken. Just know that many of us on Zoloft and Paxil would have been placed here and institutionalized as well back in the day. There was shame then in having mental illness in the family and there is still today. Thank God, today most of us in mental health focus on RECOVERY rather than CONTAINMENT and control. There is life and recovery for those with mental illness diagnosis - when once it was thought incurable and sensational.
I will be on the remaining wards December 4th 06, giving a holiday party. We visit the locked wards and then give a big bash (deejay, etc) for those permitted to come to the party.
I worked in the Long Beach Adult homes in the early 80's where patients were dumped in the exodus that occured (I think) after certain psychotropic drugs were introduced to keep these folk calm. I love them all and was well-loved. I heard their tales of diabetic comas and saw lobotomy scars. That was at the Brighton Home in Long Beach on Lincoln Blvd. and the Boardwalk - it is about to come down, but there may be a few of those folk still there - I've not visited for a while. At that time I only knew of Pilgrim as the place my friends had come from, now I live out here iright near there and still work with younger folk who've come through there or are housed there. I MUST SAY that I think the fascination with this place DOES have to do with what was done to people with mental illness, but sadly, the fascination is also with to those to whom it was done. This is all about stigma that must be broken. Just know that many of us on Zoloft and Paxil would have been placed here and institutionalized as well back in the day. There was shame then in having mental illness in the family and there is still today. Thank God, today most of us in mental health focus on RECOVERY rather than CONTAINMENT and control. There is life and recovery for those with mental illness diagnosis - when once it was thought incurable and sensational.
I will be on the remaining wards December 4th 06, giving a holiday party. We visit the locked wards and then give a big bash (deejay, etc) for those permitted to come to the party.
All of the photos where truly amazing to me, i wanted to save my comments for the last photo, or i would just keep repeating myself again and again. I am curious about one thing and this may seem a silly question, but did you feel differently going through the old asylums in europe, or do you basically feel the same every time you step into an old building? Silly i guess, but it really intrigues me